Receive Notifications If Someone Else Logs Into Your Facebook Account

Facebook's popularity makes it a prime target for hackers, phishers and other malicious people on the Internet who try to steal login information, invade your privacy or do other malicious things with your account once they have gained access.

Many Facebook users do not know that Facebook has an option to notify account owners about login attempts from other computer systems and mobile devices.

While this does not prevent the other user from logging in it gives the actual account owner information at hand to react immediately to prevent further damage.

Every Facebook user can configure the account to include that notification of unauthorized access.

Update: Facebook modified the design of the site significantly in recent time. To configure the notifications in the newest version, do the following: Click on the down arrow icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select Settings from the context menu. Switch to Security on the left and there on Login Notifications.

You can choose email or test message / push notification there. Select at least one option and click on the Save Changes button afterwards to enable the notifications.

A new feature is the option to enable login approvals as well. You find the option on the same page right underneath the login notifications preference.

This requires a security code when the account is accessed using a browser that is not known yet by Facebook (that you have not used before).

Old article continues here:

Here is how you can configure your account. Open the Facebook homepage and log into your account. Click the Account link in the upper right corner of the screen and then account settings in the context menu.

This opens the My Account configuration menu. Locate the Account Security setting under the settings tab.

Click on the change link on the right of Account Security to display the options directly on the same page. The setting reads:

To help keep your Facebook account as safe as possible, we can notify you when your account is accessed from a computer or mobile device that you haven't used before.

The default value is set to no. Select yes and submit to activate the notifications.

Make sure to log out and in again as you are asked to register the current computer system with Facebook on the next login to the social network.

Please take a moment to register this computer by choosing a name you'll remember later. You'll receive a notification confirming that you registered and logged in from here. Please note that if you clear your cookies you may need to reregister this computer.

It is suggested to select Don't ask me again from this computer if the computer is not a public computer (e.g. library or school).

You will receive email notifications whenever a user logs into your Facebook account from a non-registered computer or from a computer where the don't ask me again checkbox was not checked. (via Troublefixers)

Summary

Article Name

Receive Notifications If Someone Else Logs Into Your Facebook Account

Description

Facebook can inform you about unauthorized access to your account by sending you an email or texting you.

Author

Martin Brinkmann

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About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter

I find this really useful. Only problem is sometimes when I log in with my iphone it will say it has been logged in via iphone. There have been other notifications saying login by a mobile device. Could that be someone other than me. i don’t note exact times I log in with my phone so can’t be sure. Thanks

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About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.